Iran urges Libya to clarify Sadr's fate

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has called on the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) to clarify the fate of Shia cleric Imam Mousa Sadr who disappeared in Libya more than thirty years ago.In a message to the NTC Chairman, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi urged Libya's new leadership to find out where al-Sadr has been kept since 1978, IRNA reported on Monday.

The Iranian foreign minister also congratulated Abdul Jalil on the liberation of Libya and the victory of the Libyan people. Salehi expressed hope for the formation of a free Libya based on religious democracy, without the meddling of foreign countries. Iran's Majlis (parliament) has stepped up diplomatic efforts to clarify the fate of the kidnapped Shia cleric following the fall of Gaddafi. On Sunday, a member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Javad Karim Qoddousi, said that the sub-committee investigating Sadr's fate, will officially pursue his case after normalcy is restored to Libya. Qoddousi said that considering Sadr's popularity in Libya, there are many groups that would like to know what happened to him. Sadr, the founder of Lebanon's Amal Movement, was a popular and highly revered Lebanese Shia cleric of Iranian descent, who was kidnapped while on an official visit to Libya on August 31, 1978. Sadr, along with two of his companions, Mohammed Yaqoub and Abbas Badreddin, were scheduled to meet officials from the government of the former Libyan ruler, Muammar Gaddafi,. It is widely believed in Lebanon that the Shia cleric was kidnapped on the orders of senior Libyan officials. In 2008, the Beirut government issued an arrest warrant for Gaddafi over Sadr's disappearance.